There is some terminology and concepts that every student wishing to get into IT should have in their vocabulary. These are terms that probably haven’t made a school’s curriculum as of yet. One of them is the virtual server, a concept that I have written about a number of times in this blog. Here’s another one, Cloud Computing, a concept that has carried a great deal of steam over the past year or so.
The concept of cloud computing is designed around an architecture whose natural state is a shared pool outside the enterprise allowing users to access technology-enabled services “in the cloud”[2] without knowledge of, expertise with, or control over the technology infrastructure that supports them[3].
The services are accessible anywhere in the world, with The Cloud appearing as a single point of access for all the computing needs of consumers. Rather than a company hosting their own email server, Google hosts the mail servers on their servers through Google mail, which has gone after the business market lately.
The company gets to employ their own domainname, but don’t have to worry about supporting their email. Google boasts that one of the big advantages of using their cloud computing service for email is that because Google mail deals hundreds of millions of emails every day, (by the way, it is estimated that around 183 billion emails are sent each day worldwide) that they can respond to new viruses faster due to the sheer volume of emails they have to analyze versus an organization that hosts their own email server and may only deal with a few thousand emails a day.
Cloud computing is proving very popular for application vendors whose applications are server based. Rather than using up a server for another application, organizations are demanding that the vendor host the application and allow them to access it over the Internet.
The primary concerns over Cloud Computing are security and redundancy. How do you know for certain if your cloud computing provider is backing up your files? How do you know that their internal security is as good as yours? How do you know if their datacenter has a backup Internet pipeline and power generator? These are issues that must be addressed before a sizeable number of organizations’ critical IT functions such as email will utilize cloud computing.
Here is an example of an application that shares a duality common to many IT components. The program, Gencontrol, is a remote desktop program. It is very similar to Windows Remote Desktop which is a spectacular component inherent in Windows XP Pro, premium editions of Vista and all Windows Server editions. It allows one to remotely pull up the desktop of a designated machine, much like the highly touted website, www.gotomypc.com. These remote desktop programs utilize terminal services, the primary protocol that allows users to access desktops remotely.
There are some key differences however between Windows Remote Desktop and Gencontrol. The primary difference is security. The target machine must be configured to allow remote desktop connections when utilizing Windows Remote Desktop. The administrator of the target machine must not only configure the machine to allow remote desktop connections, but designate which users are allowed to utilize the remote connection. Gencontrol has no security element for the target machine. One only has to install Gencontrol on their computer and they can remotely connect to any computer in their LAN. Another key difference between the two is that Windows Remote Desktop opens a separate connection for the remote connection.
For XP or Vista, which only allows a single connection to the operating system whether it is local or remote, will actually log the local user off the machine if a remote user logs on the machine through Remote Desktop. For a Windows Server, two users can remote into the server through Windows Desktop while a local user is logged on as well. Each of the three users will have their own connection and basically will be oblivious of the other users. Gencontrol simply shares the local connection with the remote user.
This means that both the local user and the remote user will share the same mouse icon and keyboard, meaning that their actions can visibly conflict with each other (you can both fight over who controls the mouse). This is a great way to snoop in on what your kids are doing on the Internet. Simply type the computer name of their computer in the Gencontrol console and your child’s desktop will appear on your computer. If you don’t touch your mouse or keyboard, they will be oblivious. You can then watch their mouse and screens in real time.
At the top of the blog I mentioned the duality of this application. Gencontrol is obviously a great way for a help desk technician to assist an end user with a problem on their workstation. The technician can not only remote into the target workstation and troubleshoot a problem but can watch the actions of the end user to see what the user may be doing wrong.
On the other hand, what’s to stop an end user from monitoring the desktop of their co-worker, boss or even the President of the Company? This is an example of why security is so critical in an organization’s network.
The location based social networking service, Loopt, has been working hard to overcome a recent PR stumble. As Loopt explains on their website, Loopt shows users where friends are located and what they are doing via detailed, interactive maps on their mobile phones. Loopt helps friends connect on the fly and navigate their social lives by orienting them to people, places and events. Users can also share location updates, geo-tagged photos and comments with friends in their mobile address book or on online social networks, communities and blogs.
Recently, users began of accusing Loopt of distributing text based spam and disclosing personal information to area merchants such as cell numbers and geographic location. Loopt reports that they have resolved the issue but the incident illustrates the privacy concerns that will become more prevalent as GPS-enabled cell phones and a growing number of service offerings similar to Loopt.
Critics argue that cell users are setting themselves up to be human cookies (the computer type) as merchants long to be able to send text advertisements to users as they approach or walk past their stores. An example would be if you were to walk past a Starbucks and a text ad for a 10% off coupon comes across your cell screen.
The consensus of privacy advocates is that the temptation for specifically targeting potential customers will eventually become too overwhelming. Remember that as much as we all hate email based SPAM, it works and is highly cost efficient. There is a bright spot however, maybe people will be less inclined to use their cell phones in public in the future in order to escape the endless stream of text SPAM.
Two months ago, my XBOX 360 that I purchased over a year ago came down with the infamous “Ring of Death,” a problem that all too many Xbox owners are aware of. In short, the Ring of Death makes your Xbox unusable due to a flaw in the connection between the CPU and motherboard. Microsoft has sold over 11 million Xbox systems and some estimate that between one third and one half of these suffer the flaw that results in the red ring of death symptom. Like Vista, this has proven to be a PR nightmare for the product line. As a result, Microsoft has extended its standard year warranty by an extra year so that any and all Xbox owners who experience the problem can get their box repaired for free by mailing in the unit with the supplied shipping box for UPS.
The fix has cost Microsoft nearly two billion dollars. The Ring of Death is also a classic example of how the Internet has become a highly used research tool to troubleshoot and find home remedies for broken products. One can go to YouTube and find dozens of videos showing how common users have temporarily remedied the Ring of Death through the “Towel Trick”. Using the towel trick, one wraps their Xbox in 3 towels and leaves the unit on for at least twenty minutes. Encasing the box in towels causes the unit to overheat the unit which actually reseats the CPU in the motherboard by heating up the solder connections. The fix is only temporary as it only lasts for a week or so, but allows you to finish your game.
Thanks to Orin Optiglot for permission to use this Photo.
I was reading CSO magazine the other day (Corporate Security Officer) and came across a fascinating new security product for executives who transport highly confidential company documents. A pharmaceutical issued a high security briefcase for its research executives. The briefcase has two security modes. The “Loss Proof” function alerts the executive with an alarm signal when he is more than five meters away from the case. This is to not only discourage someone from lifting the case, but prevents the owner from leaving the case incidentally unattended.
The “Robbery Proof” mode is designed so that if the owner is accosted and forced to give up the case, the case will wait until the briefcase is more than 100 meters away and then send a 30,000 volt shock throughout the case as well as sound an ear shattering alarm. Click here to check out a similar case.
With Apple continuing to dominate the headlines and industry buzz with one acclaimed release after another, it’s easy to forget that the so-called ”Evil Empire” has been rather quietly refining their Surface computing technology. We’re talking about more than multi-touch features for your mobile phone; Surface is perhaps most intriguing for its’ “surface” adaptability and potential virtual applications. Check out this video demonstration of Microsoft’s Sphere prototype. I’m an Apple guy myself, but I must admit that Sphere could be interesting…
Ryan Rode
Interactive Services Manager
Ashworth University
There are not many people who can seriously put into question the projected dominance of Google search technology in the future evolution of the Internet. Through his brilliantly engineered software architecture and conceptual maps of its' potential applications, supergenius Tim Berners-Lee, the acknowledged inventor of the World Wide Web, has for years been carrying his message of a "semantic web" that will make the current incarnation of the web seem like your Dad's Rolodex by comparison.
In Berners-Lee vision, the next generation of web technology will be semantic, i.e. all data will be interconnected and capable of communicating with other "information" through a common language so speak. The following article discusses the development of the semantic web alongside the related, but not parallel development of Google’s search, mapping, and tracking applications. Berners-Lee is not anti-Google, but he is passionately against the centralization of web data and any form of proprietary control over Internet content.
I also encourage you to check out this very insightful video presentation in which Berners-Lee takes you on a virtual tour of the Web from its’ beginnings into tomorrow. This is fascinating stuff. Please share your thoughts with the Ashworth Blog community after brainstorming on your own.
If you are purchasing a PC today over $700, chances are the specs include a dual core processor. Multi-core processors have been thetrend for several years. A dual core processor is a CPU with twoseparate cores on the same die, each with its own cache. It’s the equivalent of getting two microprocessors in one. A typical server today has at least two dual core processors. Quad cores are also very popular too. The organization that I work for typically uses dual quad core processors for any of the servers that will be carrying a processing load such as a database server, email server or a virtual host.
But as you can surmise, it’s not stopping at quad core. Intel will be releasing a six core processor later this year. AMD will be releasing theirs early next year. These will be strictly targeted at the server market since desktop software can barely fully utilize dual core processing. And if 6 isn’t enough, both companies plan on releasing a 12 core processor sometime in 2010.
Johnny Lee is a brilliant technologist who’s become a YouTube star through his amazing demonstration of Wii remote hacks. After watching this video, you’ll never look at your Wii the same again. I love this video because Lee once again proves how integral human creativity and ingenuity are to the process of technological innovation. In this case, a relatively unknown guy like Lee on center stage at the famed TED conference, reinventing the very essence of what an already popular technology’s applications can ultimately be. These hacks are insane. Don’t miss this one…
Thanks to David K for permission to use this Photo.
Back in 2000, we were constantly told that the world was running out of IP addresses. This was because IPV4, the IP standard we use for IP addresses only has so many mathematical combinations, thus there is a defined limit to the number of IP addresses that can be utilized. Due to the wide spread use of IP in the world, a usage rate far beyond what the creators of IP ever visualized; the IT world was stressing out as to how to address the problem. The solution was a new standard called IPV6 which introduced more bits into the addressing scheme. In turn, millions of additional mathematical combinations were created, resulting in an equal number of additional IP addresses.
Unfortunately, IPV6 is more complicated than its predecessor, requiring a degree of training for networking professionals. We were told back then that IPV6 would be implemented by the middle of the decade and alleviate the crisis.
Well guess what? It’s 2008 and the world hasn’t run out of IP addresses which is why IPV6 is barely used in the industry today. This is because of the wide popularity of NAT, Network Address Translation, which is used by most organizations that have a WAN presence.
For those unfamiliar with NAT, Network Address Translation allows a single device, such as a router to act as an agent between the Internet (or “public network”) and a local (or “private”) network. This means that only a single, unique IP address is required to represent an entire group of computers. This isn’t to say that IPV6 will wither on the vine. As of right now, government offices are required to transition to IPV6 within the next couple of years and other organizations are planning such an implementation in the future, but IPV4 is and will continue to be alive and well for some time to come.
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